500 Tenge M. Kenbaev

Makhambetniyaz Kenbaev was a 19th-century Kazakh poet and zhyrau whose work survived almost entirely through oral tradition — written documentation of his life remains fragmentary, and Soviet-era scholarship did him no particular favors in terms of consistent attribution. Kazakhstan's commemorative silver program has systematically worked through figures of steppe cultural history since independence, and Kenbaev sits toward the lesser-documented end of that roster.